


Normal Has Been Changed

by Jameson9101322



Category: ReBoot (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-03-20 14:33:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3653946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jameson9101322/pseuds/Jameson9101322
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Strange things have happened to Mainframe since Bob opened that Readme. He insists it's just a .doc, but AndrAIa can sense the system is unstable, and it's not until odd corridors open in space and time that the other Sprites believe her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

AndrAIa ducked into a branching corridor when Bob appeared at the end of the hall with an open README file in his hand. He scrolled it as he walked, ignorant to the world around him. AndrAIa held her breath until he passed and waited for the pad of his soft-soled boots to recede before venturing back into the Principle Office. 

She took a circuitous route to the director's room and found the new Command.com redecorating her office with updated photos of friends and family. AndrAIa popped her head in first.  "Dot, I need to talk -"   "Sure, AndrAIa." The green sprite smiled, as did her boyfriend who sat on the couch with the open README in his hand. He'd beaten her there. " - In private" AndrAIa finished, blue eyes steely. "I need to talk with you in private."

"Okay."  She weaved around the desk.  "I'll just be a second, Bob."

He returned to scrolling the file. "Sure, Dot, whatever."

AndrAIa shut Bob inside the office and grabbed Dot's hand.  "We've got to get that file away from Bob."

"What?  Why?"

"Its bad."  

Dot looked over her shoulder to where she knew Bob was sitting on the other side of the wall.  "It's just a book. He pulled it out of stored memory."

"I don’t care where he got it."  AndrAIa shuddered.  "I'm telling you, there's a dark energy - like a virus, or something from a game - I can feel it all through the PO. I didn't know what it was until I saw that file."

"You're a little paranoid, AndrAIa. How can a single file be evil?  It's not even executable code.  Maybe you should take a rest."

A hollow echo rumbled at the edge of the corridor, like the rush of an invisible wind. AndrAIa's tuned game-sprite ears tracked it's vibrations through the halls around them; like harp strings disturbed by the breeze - off tune and sickeningly without beauty. "Do you hear that?" "Hear what?" The sound turned a corner and rushed toward them, filling AndrAIa's ears with a sour song. It passed through the wall into the director's office. Dot blinked, waiting, for AndrAIa to answer as if nothing had happened. The game sprte lowered her voice. "Something's not okay, Dot. There's a bad feeling that started the nano Bob downloaded that file.  Ignore it if you want... but I can feel it, and I'm gonna guess before long you'll start to feel it, too."

*******

For the next two cycles, Bob carried the open file with him wherever he went. AndrAIa followed him wherever he went, ducking be hind corners and watching from zipboards when she could. He was uncharacteristically fixated on it, even while a rash of power surges knocked out sectors of Baudway and Kits. Dot trusted Bob to fix it but AndrAIa knew better. The system instabilities and Bob's sudden preoccupation were too well timed to be isolated.

When Mouse and Ray entered Mainframe from off-system, the game sprite was the first one they met.

"It's just a file, honey."  Mouse insisted.    

"That's what everyone says."  AndrAIa replied.  "But I'm telling you the truth, things are behaving strangely and I feel that file is the cause."

Ray crossed his arms.  "You're not one to fly off the handle on something like this.  If you're sure about this file, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

Her eyes brightened. "Really?  No one else believes me!"

Mouse put up a hand.  "He said 'benefit of the doubt', but we'll help you, Sugar. How do you plan on investigating this?"

"I think we should try to get a look at that file."

"Have you confronted Bob about it?"

AndrAIa paused, "... well... no..."  Ray 'hmphed,' but she cut him short.  "If Bob's corrupted it wouldn't do any good. I think the file might be making him do things - using him to cause the power surges and take the system offline."

"It sounds farfetched,"  Ray said.

"Anything's possible. All we've got to do is get it away from him somehow. I haven't seen him put it down since the moment he opened it.  Maybe it's clinging to him.... Maybe the text in the file has brainwashed him so he can’t leave it unattended.  It would be a good survival tactic."

"Survival tactic for a README file?"  Mouse asked.

"It'd be smart wouldn't it?"

Ray leaned on Mouse's shoulder.  "The nano Bob calls this file 'Master' I'm checking out."

AndrAIa aimed a sarcastic jab, but was interrupted by as shift to purple and the boom of the system voice; a game. 

"This is perfect!" She cheered. "He wouldn't take the file with him into the game!"  

"Even if its sucking his brain?"

AndrAIa popped her zipboard and rose up to make sure Bob was en route.  It was entirely possible the README would prevent him from going at all, but even corrupted it would take a lot to keep Bob from his protocol.  Sure enough across the rooftops she could see Bob and Matrix headed for the cube landing by Lost Angles.  Matrix spotted her and stopped mid air.  "AndrAIa!  Are you coming?"

She grinned. "I think you can handle this one, Lover!" 

 "You sure?" Bob wheeled around to face her and her smile vanished. "It could be one of those melee games again, and you know how we love those!"  

"No, no, you kids have fun," she replied with mock enthusiasm.  A quick visual scan revealed nothing in Bob's hand or minimized to his belt.  She returned to Mouse and Ray once the others were safely tucked away in the cube.  "Let's search Bob's apartment."

Mouse grimaced a little. "You're sure?"

"We may not get another chance." 

They flew to Kits sector and entered through the window. Bob's bachelor pad was cluttered with files and trivial mishmash. The three split their efforts but the search lasted longer than AndrAIa had hoped, and she kept glancing out the open garage door for signs of the gamecube's retreat.  Across the room, Mouse was pulling open cabinet doors.  "I don’t think it's here, Sugar."

"It has to be."  She returned to the area around Bob's worktable.  

Ray kicked a couch cushion back into place.  "Sorry, love, its not here."

AndrAIa swept tools aside in frustration then noticed something in the corner of the room.  A staircase.

"Hey, that wasn't there before, was it?"

"You'd know better than we would." 

"This used to be a wall." She peered inside. The staircase was not only new, it appeared to be of a different construction than the rest of the apartment – all wires and clockwork.  It only took two steps down to convince AndrAIa that it didn’t belong.

“Are we going in?”  Ray asked over her shoulder.  He and his girlfriend peeked under the low doorframe into the darkened corridor.  AndrAIa swallowed and searched them for any unspoken advice. She shouldn’t have expected much dissent, these two thrived on adventure, and in any other situation she would have felt the same way, but the negative emotion hovering down the short staircase and extending walkway turned her stomach.  Her better sense and adaptive intelligence told her otherwise, but she nodded and led her friends into the shadow.

Even with the exposed wiring and bundled cords stretching like veins down the length of the vanishing hallway, the game sprite could see no light switch or bulb anywhere near the door.  When she stepped on the crosshatched steel landing her heel echoed into the gloom as if it were being sucked in by some strange auditory vacuum. She paused for a second to test the affects of the resulting silence, then stepped further into the tunnel, allowing Mouse and Ray to join her.  

The ceiling was low, and the walkway hung like a catwalk in the center of a pipe.  Mouse whistled. The note vanished with AndrAIa’s footsteps back into the void.  “This is strange.”

Ray welled a fistful of energy to light their path and the three of them continued tentatively inward.

AndrAIa could feel the aura gathering thickly, now.  It was the same feeling she got when she saw Bob reading that file, the same evil force that had whispered voices through the halls of the Principle Office, yet here it was concentrated down into a narrow tube of discontent.  Perhaps this was where he was hiding it.  

Perhaps this was where it lived.

A new mission on her mind, she regained a certain boldness to her pace.  Wherever this dark hallway led, she was sure she’d find that open document at the end.  It was just a matter of where the end was, if there even was one.

They kept walking until the light of Mainframe had contracted into a speck behind them, the walls illuminated by Surfr’s eerie blue glow bowed their shadows in curves on either side.  Initially, Mouse had enthusiastically investigated the coiled wires, trying to figure out their purpose, but now she passed them with nary a glance.  She was more intent on the series of intricate gears that were growing thicker and thicker behind pipe's nervous system.  She tapped Ray’s shoulder and whispered, her voice vanishing ahead of them.  “Have you taken a good look at this stuff?”

“Yeah, shouldn’t it be moving?”

AndrAIa focused straight ahead, staring at a horizon shrouded in black.  Ray’s light seemed to build a bubble around them gathering the blackness into a concave wall just out of reach.  The ever present aura might as well have turned to a tangible mist around her. 

After microseconds of walking straight ahead with no sign of file or end.  Their entrance had vanished nearly completely, if it even remained at all.  There was no telling how much time had passed down there, the game had most certainly left by now, it could even be a night cycle as far as she could tell.  Mouse cleared her throat.

"This has been a peach but I think we should head back."

"It can't be too much farther."

"AndrAIa," Mouse insisted. The hacker's eyes glowed with concern. Ray was in no mood to argue, piping his energy into his fist for so long had exhausted him.

Her brow furrowed.  “Just a little further? This might be the only chance we get to find that file.”

“We aren’t going to find it in here, Sugar.”  Mouse told her, pointedly.  “It’s insane to think Bob would walk this far back to drop a file and still make it to the game cube before it hit.  Whatever this place is, it’s not going to help us as we are.”

“But-“  AndrAIa said.  “I can feel that sense.  The one I told you about when that README is open.  I’ve never felt it stronger than down here, it’s as if it comes from here.  This could be the source of its power.”

“Or the power made this place on its own.”  Ray said.  “And with that marvelous transition, I say we go grab an energy shake.”

“How can you think of food in a place like this?”

He pointed to his elevated hand. “Yes?”

She looked from him to Mouse and sighed.  She didn’t want to stay in this place alone, and no matter how close or far they were from whatever end they were trying to reach she knew she’d have to give up the journey for now.  She could return later with better equipment and maybe Frisket along for safety.  “Okay.  We go back.”

Mouse nodded.  "Good call, Sugar, this place is starting to give me the creeps."

When they resurfaced in Bob’s apartment no time had passed.  The game cube still rippled in the corner of the garage-view, and the system seemed to be functioning normally.  AndrAIa could have dismissed the macros they’d spent in that tunnel as a passing dream if it wasn’t for Ray, who dropped his arm and collapsed against the wall the minute they were out.  They hadn’t calculated the time it took them to get back; he had given everything he had.  Mouse knelt beside him as his wetsuit flicked on and off before resetting itself and settling back to his normal ocean-dappled pattern.  

The flame-haired sprite looked over her shoulder at the opening, then up to AndrAIa.  “Okay, honey, something weird’s going on around here.  I’m ready to buy anything you say.  What are we going to do next?”

“I don’t know.”  AndrAIa admitted.  “There may be something wrong with the system.  I mean, logically that hallway shouldn’t even exist.  It extends much farther back than this apartment building is wide, and I’ll bet there aren’t any strange projections sticking out the back.  Maybe it’s some sort of computation error.”  

“It could be an infinite data loop.”  Mouse offered.  “That would explain the neverending-ness in there, but I’ve never seen such an anomaly manifest itself into a tube like that.”

“We’ll have to check the status at the PO. Then maybe bring some more sophisticated scanners up here to check it out.” The clean air almost sparkled in contrast to the feeling she’d been saturated with in the tunnel.  She focused a smile on Ray and pulled him up off the floor by the hand.  “But first we’ll get you a recharge.”

“Sounds good.”

…

Matrix found the three of them in a booth at Dot’s Diner.  He saluted Mouse and Ray as he slid in next to AndrAIa.  “When’d you guys get back?”

“Just now.”  AndrAIa said, realizing that minus the time they’d spent in the phantom pipeline they’d only been in Mainframe for a micro or more. “What kind of game was it?”

“Easy stuff.”  He replied.  “It was that shooting game, you know the fire-arrow one from when we left that one green-binome system?  I was a god there.”

She laughed cuddled close.  “I remember.”

Ray sucked out the end of his shake before posing a casual question.  “Where’s Bob.”  

AndrAIa’s gut bottomed out.  She looked briefly over her shoulder out the window in case he might be standing there with that file in his hand.  

Matrix shrugged.  “He headed back to the PO I think, that or his apartment.  He’s been a real recluse lately, it’s not like him.”

“He’s got a new book.”  AndrAIa said a little bitterly.  

“Are you still on about that?” Matrix cast the other sprites a smile.  “Have you heard this story she’s been telling?  You don’t believe her do you?”

Ray started.  “Well we-“

“I haven’t told them yet.”  AndrAIa interrupted.  “I figure they’d laugh at me like everyone else.”  She unlooped her arm and nudged him in the side. “I want out.”

"Come on, AndrAia, don't be sore about it."

She shoved him aside and turned for the door.  “I’ll see you guys later okay?”

Matrix scratched his head as he watched her take off for the center of the system.  “Was it something I said?”

AndrAIa popped a zip board and headed for the Principle Office and her familiar station in the War Room. She launched an array of vidWindows and half a dozen scans. The fluctuations persisted. Kit's sector was affected, but nothing registered in the levels that could explain the strange hallway. Memory of the dark aura both engaged and appalled her. She heard the sound of swirling dust followed by the opening of the War Room doors.  Bob descended the staircase with the file open in his hand.

 “Here you are!  We’ve been looking all over for you.”

Her throat knotted. "We?"

“Matrix said you stormed off. Everyone's back at the diner, you should come!”

“I-“ She backed up onto the console and paused the scan.  “I think I’ll just stay here.” 

Concern tinged his brown eyes. "AndrAIa, are you okay?" He reached to comfort her, but she stepped away from his hand, exposing the panels and readouts. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“Nothing.”  She swiped a hand to clear her desktop.  “Research, it’s really important, I can’t leave it for a nanosecond.”

He paused, a little hurt, and returned to the stairs.  “Well, if you change your mind…”

“I know where you are.”  She nodded.  “Have a good time.”

The doors closed behind him but that aura still remained.  It lay like a trail wherever he or that file went.  She was positive, now, that the hallway and the README were directly related.  Still the newfound coldness in that room spoiled her concentration and she had to leave the War Room to conduct her business elsewhere.  She walked the halls of the PO looking for some dark corner where Bob had not visited.  Strangely enough, she found herself in Phong’s office.

"What is troubling you, My child?”

“Nothing. Why would you think that?”

He fiddled with his glasses.  “You are a skilled survivor, but you cannot hide that well.”

She sighed. “Do you feel something weird around here?  A sense of danger?”

He tilted his head. “I do not feel any different.”

She slouched in her seat.  “I thought as much.”

“But that does not necessarily mean there is nothing wrong.”  She looked up, her eyes hopeful.  His wise tone turned grave. “You are unique, my child.  As a game sprite, your intelligence is constantly evolving to match the conditions in which you find yourself.  It is possible that your adaptive senses can register things that ours cannot.  If this is the case, you must be careful and attentive to what you feel.  If only you can feel the danger, that might be the danger to us all.”

“You’re right Phong.”  She nodded and stood.  “This requires a hands-on approach. I need to borrow a remote system scanner, a high-intensity flashlight and energy for the trip.  What can you hook me up with?”

He gave her a knowing look and led her out into the hall.


	2. Chapter 2

Little Enzo looked up from Dot's presidential desk, his red cap askew and a notepad in his hand. "You and Frisket are going where again?" 

“Bob’s apartment,”  AndrAIa said. “But you can’t come.”

“But I’ve been to Bob’s apartment loads of times.  What are you two gonna do that’s so secret?”

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret.” 

“You’re not being fair.” 

“Fair doesn’t count with grownups lil’ Sparky.  If I tell you to stay you stay.”

“No fair playing the ‘grownup’ card!”

"Go back to your homework." AndrAIa readjusted her backpack.  “Come on, Frisket, let’s go.”

Enzo followed them from the office and into the hall.  “But I can help!”

“No, Enzo, it’s too dangerous.”

“In Bob’s apartment!?”

AndrAIa stopped with a heavy sigh and roll of her eyes.  “Okay, you got me.  I’m not really going to Bob’s Apartment.”

“Ah HAH!”

“We're going somewhere dark and creepy. Somewhere no one else has ever been.  That’s why I’m bringing Frisket, just in case there’s some dark and scary monster going to eat me!”

The young sprite pouted.  “You don’t lie that well, AndrAIa.”

“But I *am* going somewhere dark and scary, and I don’t feel comfortable with you coming along.”  She squatted down and pinched his cheeks.  “Its because I love you.”

“Aw.”  He backed out of her grip.  “Don’t get mushy in front of Frisket.”  

“Do you understand why you can’t go?” 

“Sure, fine. You win.” 

"I tell you what," she stopped on the front step of the Principle Office and popped open a zip board. "Mouse and Ray just got back from another adventure. How about as a grownup, I say you can put off your school work and hang out with everyone at the diner?”

“Mouse and Ray are back?" His violet eyes lit like lamps. "Alphanumeric! Maybe they got me something!”   

"You know they never forget." 

"This is awesome! Good luck, AndrAIa." He threw open his own zip board.  “Don't get eaten by something scary!”

 She looked down to her canine friend. “We'll try our best.”

Enzo waved goodbye and sailed off between the buildings of Mainframe. He reached Baudway and skidded to a stop outside Dot's Diner. Inside, Dot, Bob, Matix, Ray and Mouse sat spread between two booths with the new arrivals holding hands across the back of the partition. Matrix looked up when Enzo entered.  “Hey, Little Me, where you been?”

“Homwork," Enzo groaned. "But before that me and Frisket were checking out G Prime. Since the powerdown all sorts of cool glitches and errors have showed up.  Here,” he pulled a minimized notepad from his belt.  “I wrote down where all the tears were so you can go mend them.  Pretty Guardian like don’t you think?”

“Sure is. You’ll be a first rate protector of the city before you know it.”

Enzo swelled with pride then waved to Mouse and Ray.  “Welcome back, you guys.  What’d I miss?”

“We were telling about how we saved the last system we visited from crashing with nothing but good common sense and about fifty megatons of raw energy.”  Mouse answered, winking.  “It was a narrow escape, but nothin’ Ray and I couldn’t handle.”

“Wow!  What’d you do?”

She crossed her legs over the length of her seat.  “The system was decompiling because of an operating system error, so we drilled a hole into the core and constructed a huge funnel out of scrap metal, and pumped energy from the sea in. Instant recharge.  Everything snapped back into place as good as new.”

“They got a statue of us now, right in the middle of town." Ray added. "Called us their Heroes.”

Mouse slid him an amused look.  “All in a day’s work.”

Dot smiled and looked to Bob but found him reading again.  She scooted a little closer but it didn’t help; he read on.

“Oh, hey, almost forgot.”  Ray pulled an item from his belt.  “We got somethin’ for you, mate.”

Enzo grinned.  “Really?”

The search engine tossed him a small hinged box.  Enzo unfolded it to find a screen and input pad. He pressed a button an antenna slid out of the top.   

“All the kids in Alt745 have these little gizmos," Mouse said. "They’ve got all kinds of gadgets inside them - a magnifying glass, a file cutter, a notepad - all you do is punch in the right sequence and out it pops.  It’s like your own personal keytool, Sugar.”

“Wow! That’s awesome!”  He tried a number and the antenna was replaced with a pair of scissors, another combination produced a whistle, yet another and it to sprouted legs to stand like a tripod.  “Alphanumeric! Bob?  Did you see this thing?”

Bob continued to scroll the document file. Matrix cleared his throat, but Dot had to jab him in the ribs to finally get his attention.  “What?" Bob looked up, shaken. "Oh, that’s great Enzo.”

“Maybe I’ll name it and use it in games!”  Enzo dashed behind the center bar.  “Hold on, lemme find a way to strap it to my wrist.”

“Told you he’d love it.” Mouse said. Ray laughed and she addressed the others. “We got stuff for you all too, but you’ll have to come back to Ship for that, I couldn’t make my sprite carry everything on him.”

Enzo searched the shelves of condiments to find a binding agent when a strange whistling rang in his ears. The bottles trembled on the shelves. A magnetic pull tugged him from behind and he turned, jumping in fear up onto the table and down the other side of the bar. “Dot!”

The Command.com jumped to her feet. A gaping hole widened in the floor behind the bar. Bundles of wire snaked across the counter-top like fingers. Those remaining in the booth joined her on their feet. Bob left the file open and neglected on the table. “What in the Net?”

"Enzo! Get away from there!" Dot grabbed her younger brother and pulled him with her to the wall. 

Matrix moved in front of them and climbed onto the bar. Mouse grabbed his arm. “Don’t go in there, Sugar. Not yet.”

“Why?"  Matrix frowned.  “Do you know what this is?”

She looked to Ray who shrugged and shook his head. Mouse set her brow.  “We’ve seen this kind of thing before. AndrAIa thinks it's a flaw in the system.”

“AndrAIa?" Matrix cried.

Dot wheeled around. "You’ve seen another one of these in Mainframe!?” 

Bob frowned.  “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Ray stepped in.  “But AndrAIa didn't-“

Matrix grabbed him about the collar. “If you know something spit it out!”  

"That's the dark and scary place!" Enzo cried. All eyes turned to him. "AndrAIa took Frisket with her to somewhere 'dark and scary'."

Matrix knelt in front of him. "Where did she go?"

"She said it was Bob's apartment."

The guardian gaped. "There's one of these in my apartment!?"

"I don't know if she was telling the truth, or not. She was acting weird."

"I'm going over there." Matrix charged the door.

Bob scooped the notepad off the table. "Wait for me!"

The rest followed them outdoors and watched them sail into the datasky. Dot breathed heavily and and turned her full attention to Mouse and Ray. "Tell me everything you know." 

*******

AndrAIa and Frisket walked for what felt like a second, although her watch stopped working the moment they entered tunnel.  Frisket sniffed at cogs and gadgets along the way, but nothing attracted his attention.  AndrAIa was relieved the corridor was still there - half expected it to have vanished while she was gone - yet re-entering felt like swallowing old poison. Her insides churned, urging her to flee at every moment, yet she took a swig from her thermos and cast her light about in front of her as they continued on.  “We could be down here forever, Frisket.”

The dog raised his ears and whimpered a little, the sound sucked forward into the black.

“Don’t worry, when we get out ‘forever’ won’t mean a thing.  I was down here before.  This passageway seems to drop right out of space and time.”  She cast her lamp backward.  The crosshatched catwalk stretched to oblivion, the light of Mainframe long since vanished into black.  “We just have to get out, that’s all.”

Frisket growled.  She cast the beam in front of her, again.  The hair on Frisket’s neck was stood up. The sick feeling deep inside her intensified into nausea. Her voice echoed more slowly. “What’s wrong, Frisket?”

A breeze shook the wires in the walls around them, blowing dust past them toward Mainframe. The wind increased, carrying a barrel of sound with it from the deep.  A disharmony of wind, reeds, tall grass, growls, gasps and sobs rattled the space and stabbed at her ears. AndrAIa covered her face, battered by every word she’d said and the voices of her friends.  The decibals rose.  Frisket huddled on the floor stomping his ears shut, but the sound did not fade. He bounded to his feet, plastered his ears back across his neck, grabbed AndrAIa’s backpack in his teeth, and ran with her away from the sound.  The flashlight clattered to the floor and vanished steadily into darkness.  The sea sprite watched it recede, her legs flailing and her hands still pinned to her head.  Before it was too far away she saw it flicker and die.

Frisket's shoulder clipped a pole and they skidded across the floor. His yelp was swallowed by the maelstrom. AndrAIa's ears stung so badly she was certain they were bleeding, and her head spun too much to stand. Frisket found her in the darkness and flipped her onto his back. They reached the staircase and emerged into the light of Bob’s garage. The silence was so pure, she thought she'd gone deaf. When Matrix appeared in a in a vidwindow , she could barely hear what he was saying.

“AndrAIa!?  Where are you?”

She took a nano to couple his distant voice with the movements of his lips.  “I’m right here… what’s wrong?”

“There’s a hole in the diner.”

She was sure she hadn’t heard that right.  “A hole?  In the diner?”

“Are you at Bob's apartment?"

"Uh... no..." She made sure the wall behind her was blank. "I'm in GPrime...investigating."

"Mouse and Surfr said you found a hole like the diner in in Bob's apartment. Bob and I headed over there."

"No, wait!" The sound of her own voice in her head made them throb. "We should all meet up together. I'm closer to the diner. Wait for me back there."

"But AndrAIa - "

She closed the window. Frisket was licking a wound on his leg. AndrAIa crawled over to him and spoke, although she knew his ears were ringing as much as hers.  “Sorry Frisket. This didn't go at all how I hoped.”

She left Frisket on Bob's couch and flew across the system. Power surges were knocked sectors off-line as she passed. Her zipboard lost altitude as the block beneath her flickered. AndrAIa veered into the next block and picked up her speed. She wondered if Bob was somewhere cutting wires according to the directions in his book, adn was surprised to find him with the others staring dumbly into the center of the diner.

“AndrAIa!”  Dot rushed over to her.  “Thank goodness you’re here!”

“Shhh.”  She shielded her ears.  “Quieter.”

Enzo pressed his lips tight.  “I guess it really was dark and scary.”

She nodded.  “And loud.”

“AndrAIa.”  Mouse weaved through the crowd and grabbed her wrist.  “Look here, Sugar.”

The sea sprite got a chill.  The same nasty aura festering in the Principle Office and Bob's apartment was spewing out of this hole like a fountain of evil. She covered her mouth and backed away. This diner was a safe place micros earlier, now infected with a heavy musk she’d grown to detest as well as fear. “Yes, its the same.  And that one probably doesn’t end either.”

“So you went back in?”  Ray read her answer in a glance.  “I knew you would.”

“What’d you find?”  Mouse pressed.

“Nothing,” AndrAIa answered bitterly, “a long winding nothing and then everything all at me at once.  I think that tunnel chased me out, Mouse, it was screaming at me.  Maybe it has a consciousness all its own, but Frisket and I tore out of there as fast as we could.”

“Wait wait wait…” Bob interrupted, absentmindedly scooping the file from the table where he’d left it.  “How did one of these get into my house without me noticing it?"

"Because you haven't noticed anything since you picked up that file!" AndrAIa caught sight of it clipped to his belt and gagged into her hand.  She shoved past him and tore out of the diner.   

Matrix followed closely.  

“AndrAIa, hold on!” He grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. “Tell me what’s going on.”

"I tried! It's that backspacing-FILE, but none of you will believe me!" Tears welled. Her body had been running for over a second without rest, even though in Mainframe it was still the middle of the day cycle.  She surrendered and collapsed into Matrix's chest.  “All I know for sure is that I’m the only one who can stop it.”

“Why you?”

“Because I’m the only one who feels it.”  She squeezed tears into his shirt.  “It's black and awful. I can feel it gritty in the air.  it follows that file around the system and lingers after its gone like gunk on the walls.  If you felt it you’d see how Mainframe’s being infected with it.”

“Infected?”  Matrix chewed on the word.  The two of them had been to many systems and seen many different types of viruses. AndrAIa could see the old hatred glow red behind his false eye.  “Okay, AndrAIa, I believe you.  Maybe there is something wrong with that file, but I think you’re giving it more credit than it deserves.” She made to protest but he held her firmly.  “We’ll look into it tomorrow - together - but right now you’re in a bad way.  You need to log off for a while.  Will you do that?”

She stared at him a moment, depleted, and ill, and nodded. Matrix scooped her form the pavement and carried into the sky.


	3. Chapter 3

CPUs treated Dot's Diner like a crimescene. Curious numerals and binomes lined up along caution tape barricades, watching the sprites inside investigate the strange hole. 

“AndrAIa said it doesn’t lead anywhere, but that sounds basic to me.”  Matrix and tightened a rope around his waist.  “Everything has to go somewhere.  I’m going to find out where it leads.”

Mouse bit her lip. “Trust us, Sugar, this hole, here, leads nowhere. You'll keep going down and down for eternity, or at least until you run out of rope.”

“There’s no such thing as an eternal distance,”  Dot said.  “Even the Net has borders.”

“The Web doesn't,”  Ray added.  “Besides, we’ve been in one of these holes, they don’t turn or bend or change, and when you come out it’s like no time has passed.”

“Then you guys won’t have to wait for me.”  Matrix opened his zip board and hovered over the entrance to the hole.  Hack and Slash held the other end of his lifeline, which looped through a pulley dangling directly over the expanse. "I-I-I dunno boss..." Hack stammered. "It is a long drop, boss." "Reeaaaally long drop." "Really long." "Like forever." "What AndrAIa said." "There's safer ways to explore, mate." Ray offered. "Even the corridor in Bob's apartment is a better candidate than this." "That hole apparently screams at you." Matrix clipped Gun to his leg gun and signaled to those on the ground.  “You’ll be seeing me sooner than I’ll be seeing you.”

The rest exchanged glances. Nothing was clear. The rope unspooled slowly into the expanse.

…

Four more subsectors had dropped off the map overnight.  AndrAIa rerouted power through working networks to resupply the city but she knew it was only temporary.  Even as she finished wiring Kits and Baudway, entire levels of Floating Point blacked out.  It was an uphill battle that she felt like she was waging alone.  “Shouldn’t Dot and Bob be here doing this with me?”  She asked out loud.  “Cursors, Mouse alone could get this place running.  Why am I the only one who seems to care?”

She sent Floating Point some energy from G Prime and supported that with backup supplies from the residential sectors.  An alert sounded as more tears opened up around the city.  Bob still hadn’t done anything about those lingering in the industrial levels from the last day cycle.  He was seriously neglecting his guardian duties and the stability of the system was suffering.  “Too busy reading.”  She muttered, and left the War Room to find Phong.  

Surprisingly, he was not in his office, which was still the only place in the building that didn’t reek of negative forces.  To quicken her search she sat at his deck and pulled up a building scan.  She noticed a level of the PO was misbehaving.   “That’s strange.”  She pulled up the statistics. “A power drainage.  Dot’s office is on that level, maybe she left her Java maker on or something.”  She shut the screen down and left the room. “I bet Phong went to check it out.”

The closer she got to the drainage the more nauseous she became.  The air was thick, growing worse and worse the further she got.  She heard whispers in the hallways. 

Her ears popped as she neared Dot's door, as if the pressure in the hall had changed. The closed doorway pulsed with negative energy. Although she knew the Guardian was nowhere near the building, the stench of the file was strong inside. “Is it because Bob spends so much time in here? Or maybe…" Bob never left his precious README unattended, but a chance to finally destroy it was too good to pass up. AndrAIa pressed the open door button and was pulled violently into the room. A third hole, bigger than the other two, occupied the wall behind Dot’s desk.  Its wires laced along the floor and ceiling, weaving through furniture and around photos. Wailing sounds tore past her to the tune of grinding metal. AndrAIa clung to the doorframe. The lamp by her head was ripped from the wall trailing frayed cords. Energy sparked form the exposed wire. The light was sucked into the void. She strained every muscle in her upper body and levered back into the hall.  “Phong? Phong are you in there?”

Dot’s mounted pictures were sucked off the wall.  One of she and Bob shattered against the heavy wood of the desk as the massive piece of furniture was pulled across the floor.  The Game Sprite closed the door. The sudden return to normal gravity sent her stumbling against the wall. She sat in a cloud of dark aura, heart racing wishing for help and a better plan. She rushed from the PO and straight to Dot's Diner where everyone stood watching the pulley. Her arrival at the door made them jump. “There’s a hole in Dot's office!" "My office?" Dot gaped. "It’s sucking everything in! I think it got Phong! We have to go!”

“Phong?  What!?” Dot stammered. "But, Matrix-“

Mouse and Ray glanced to the pulley. AndrAIa’s eyes widened. She grabbed Dot by the arms.  “What happened?”

“He went in the hole." Hack said. "Yeah, the hole!" Slash agreed. 

AndrAIa blanched. “He what!?”  She shoved Dot aside and climbed up onto the bar.  The safety rope dangled down into darkness. She couldn't see its end. “MATRIX!”

"Calm down, Sugar." Mouse put her hand on her friend’s shoulder.  

AndrAIa flung her off.  “How’d you let him go?  You know what’s down there!  He said we’d investigate together!  He promised me!  Why didn’t he wait?”  She shouted down the well again.  “MATRIX!”

“It's alright, AndrAIa." Bob stepped froward. "He's got a lifeline, he'll be fine!”

She raised her nails at him.  “Back up or I’ll spike you.”

“AndrAIa!” Dot shouted.

“I’m going in after him." The sea sprite climbed unto the bar. "I’m not letting the darkness get him too.”

Mouse reached out. “AndrAIa, don't -”

The hacker's words were sucked past AndrAia and into the hole. A steady whine sounded. The pressure in the room changed. They all covered their ears and their surprised yelps were flushed down the hole in a whirlwind as a fierce suction kicked in. AndrAIa was pulled from the bar, but clung to Matrix's safety line.  Hack and Slash babbled over each other and strained to hold on, but even their combined strength couldn’t keep them from slipping along the tiled floor.  

Ray bounded up on the bar and offered AndrAIa his hand.  “Grab on!”  


Bob grabbed him by the other hand, Dot and Mouse took Bob around the waist, but AndrAIa kept both hands viced on the lifeline.

The rope was taught - that meant Matrix was still attached. If she let go of Ray, she'd be with him in half a nano… but then there’d be no way out.  She and Matrix would fall together until they deleted from lack of energy.  As bittersweet and romantic as that sounded, Phong’s words came back to her.  She was the only one who could save the system.  The rope jerked again. Her hair whipped her eyes, and she heard the yawn of the world as it was pulled down the vortex.  In an instant she released the rope and grabbed Ray’s waiting hand.

He pulled her to his chest and levered backward, AndrAIa held tight and they, Bob, Dot, and Mouse collapsed backwards to the floor. The rope snapped from the pulley and vanished into the void.   "ENZO!" AndrAIa burst into heartbroken tears, laying atop the pile of her friends as they stared helplessly at the ceiling.  Matrix was gone.  The nothingness had stolen her lover.


	4. Chapter 4

"Matrix is missing in action and Phong is nowhere to be found." Dot strafed the war room in front of the others. AndrAIa shifted against one of the consoles, her loneliness and concern for Matrix amplified by the negativity of the gaping black hole not two levels above them  


"I still think it's an Infinite Data Loop." Mouse said. "A small flaw in the system appearing as a hole that continues to repeat itself forever. These openings probably all stem from the same malfunction and they wont stop until the code is repaired."  


"I've seen If…Then…Else loops before." Dot said. "Never outside of games though. They usually result in a total crash."  


"That's not going to happen here." Dot resolved. She looked to Mouse. "What could have caused this?"  


"Many things, a loose variable, a line of unfinished code, an erroneous process, it could be anything."  


"Whatever it is," AndrAIa said firmly, "it has everything to do with that file Bob has in his hand right now."  


The guardian looked up sharply. He'd drifted back to the book through the meeting. "My file?"  


"Yes your file." AndrAIa said. "This is what I've been talking about for seconds! If you all had believed me we could have done something by now and Matrix would still be here."  


"We know you're upset, AndrAIa, we all are," Dot said. "All we can do is try our best to fix the system and look for a way to get Matrix back."  


"Let's start by studying that file." Mouse said, reaching for it.  


Bob pulled it away. "I'm not done with it yet!"  


"Bob." Dot reprimanded. He clutched the open file to his chest. She loomed over him. "Give me the file."  


"No."  


"GIVE ME THE FILE!"  


He slapped it down on the table and she slid it to Mouse. "You start on that."  


"Right." The Hacker got up to leave.  


AndrAIa caught her arm. "And don't read it! It might possess you too."  


"I'm not possessed!" Bob cried.  


Mouse looked amused and waved to him with the open file. "Bye Sugar."  


Enzo and Frisket passed her on the way in. "What's with the emergency meeting?"  


They'd neglected to inform Enzo what happened to his older brother. Bob exchanged glances with Dot as they tried separately to knit an explanation, but their resident optimist beat him to the punch.  


"We're trying to find a way to plug up these holes." Ray said. "Matrix tried before, but it didn't work, so we're trying to think of something else."  


"I can ask Theta to scan it!" Enzo cried.  


Bob quirked a silver eyebrow. "Who's Theta?"  


"My Keytool!" Enzo said, holding up his wrist where his gift was strapped on with tape. "You were in the diner when I got it. Remember?"

Bob pressed his lips. "I don't... maybe a little?"

"That file has really dominated your mind," Dot told him.

"I didn't mean it to." The implications set worry in Bob's brown eyes. "What else did I miss?"

"Probably seeing the cool stuff Theta do," Enzo persisted. "See, I can tell it to scan by pressing in these buttons and…" A rotating disk popped out of the top. "Can I scan the hole in Dot's office?"

Dot recoiled. "Absolutely not!"

"But look!" He punched two more buttons and a stalk-mounted microphone appeared.  


Dot couldn't help but smile. "Thanks anyway, Enzo. I know you're very capable, but the adults should really handle this."  


"Let's go over the readings I took from inside the tunnel at Bob's apartment." AndrAIa suggested. “It'll take all of us to sort the raw data. Hopefully Mouse will find something in the file that can be of some use."  


"What was in that file anyway?" Ray asked. "You seemed to be addicted to it."  


"Its just a story." Bob said. "A novel. About normal people doing normal stuff.” He shot a defensive glance to AndrAIa. “Nothing blatantly evil, anyway."  


"Well, whatever it is, it's adversely affecting the system," AndrAIa said. "Let's get to work."  


They broke to hunt through AndrAIa's findings. Most of the readings were either blank or off the scale. She figured the space in the tunnel caused the scanner to malfunction the same way it had confused her watch. The place simply wasn't natural.  


Dot walked over to her console. "Any luck?"  


She shook her head. "Nothing useful. It read that huge burst of sound easy enough. Any trace of code corruption in your batch?"  


"Not that I can see," Dot answered. "Of course, I'm limited by what your machine actually recorded."  
AndrAIa sighed. "Well, keep trying."  


Bob scrolled his portion on an open vid window. "Maybe we should go back in with better equipment and try again."  


"No one else is going in any of these holes," Dot said. "I'm not loosing any more people to this thing."  


Ray crossed his arms. "Taking a little risk is better than not doing anything at all."  


“Okay, gang,” Hacker interrupted. Mouse descended the stairs to the center consolde with the README and a file folder. "Here's what I've got."  


They gathered around. Mouse plugged the folder into the War Room projector and cast the scrolling data up on the screen. "I was right, there IS a loose variable in this file. It's disguised within the text but it is declared early on."  


AndrAIa gloated but Dot was still confused. "How could a variable declared in a README file affect the system? READMEs are just documents."  


"All code starts as a document," Mouse said. "The file is mostly useless commented text, but when a sprite or binome reads the variable the hidden code becomes active. Bob's registered to the core, so when he read the file it used his code to act on the system."  


"Wow." The muscle at Bob's jaw twitched. "I've never heard of a variable like that.. If I'd known it were possible –”  


"Don't blame yourself, sugar, this is the first file of this type I've come across, personally." Mouse announced. "I've found theories such a weapon could be made but no one ever succeeded.”  


“Weapon?” Dot cried. “Was this an attack?”  


“I highly doubt it.” Mouse shut the README down. “All dated material in it predates the bunch of us. If Phong were here, maybe he'd know something, but if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it's most likely the file was written in Mainframe and stored in the system library without anyone knowing."  


"Who could have written such a tricky document?" Ray asked. "Sounds like something you'd do Mouse."  


She winked at him. "It'd be fun... and a real challenge, the encryption exists in the lines of text – the frequency of certain letters, page breaks, punctuation – it would take a brilliant mathematician, not to mention an innovative programmer and talented author."  


Enzo scrached his head. "Who in Mainframe could have done that?"  


Dot put a hand to her mouth in thought. "I think its time we go talk to my father."


End file.
